"He did a great job of preparing to stop what we do best," Refugio coach Jason Herring said of Banquete coach Kevin Hermes. "That was the best coaching job against us in a long time."

The No. 20 Bulldogs (7-1, 4-1) deployed two deep safeties and six players available to cover the pass and virtually dared Refugio to throw.

"With all the passing yards we've been racking up teams come in thinking we're going to throw, throw, throw," said Refugio running back Louie Whetsel. "All the running backs knew coming in we were going to get more carries."

Whetsel carried 19 times for 131 yards and scored Refugio's first touchdown on a 9-yard run in the third quarter.

Draigon Silvas added 18 carries for 95 yards and a touchdown, and Tyler Castellano had five carries for 84 yards, all in the fourth quarter.

The Bobcats had 504 yards of offense, but hurt themselves with 12 penalties for 125 yards. Refugio had two touchdowns and an interception wiped out by a penalty.

"We had a lot of critical penalties that killed our drives," Herring said. "I'm tickled pink that we scored 31 on those guys."

Refugio had only a 21-yard field goal by Adolfo Cordero in the first half, but the Refugio defense limited the Bulldogs to 123 net yards.

"They went to a more running set with more running backs in the backfield than receivers," said Brown, who had two interceptions. "Usually they go spread, but they went tight set like some teams we have trouble with.

"We saw what we had to do and we've played teams like that so it was nothing new to us," he added. "We came in the game saying we needed a shutout and we got the shutout."

Refugio took control in the fourth quarter when Travis Quintanilla threw touchdown passes of 8 and 65 yards to Marcus Thompson before Silvas scored on a 1-yard run on the final play of the game.

"This game had a big impact on all of us," Whetsel said. "I think we responded really well and we're going to get better and better."